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2019 Pegi Young, Neil Young's wife from 1978-2014, dies of cancer at 66. Pegi sang backup for Neil and released three solo albums.

2013 Patti Page, a pop and country singer who had a huge hit with "Tennessee Waltz," dies at age 85, suffering from both heart and lung disease.

2012 During celebrations in Times Square, Lady GaGa shares a kiss with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg just after the ball drops.

2011 Hugh Laurie, a blues artist and actor best known for his role on the TV drama House, wins the fourth Golden Mouth Organ Award on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Laurie earns the award by playing "Oh! Susanna."

2011 Shania Twain gets married for the second time, this time to Frédéric Thiébaud, the ex-husband of Twain's former best friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who had an affair with Twain's first husband, Mutt Lange, leading to their divorce.

2011 An 84-year-old Chuck Berry collapses on stage in Chicago at a New Year's Day concert. He makes a full recovery.

2010 Chris Cornell tweets that Soundgarden, split since 1997, are getting back together.

2007 Country singer Del Reeves - known for the 1965 novelty hit "Girl on the Billboard," among others - dies of emphysema at age 74.

2006 Flavor Flav's reality show, Flavor of Love, premieres on VH1. The series lasts for three seasons. Flav is one of the founding members of the pioneering rap group Public Enemy.

2006 Guitarist/songwriter Bryan Harvey (of House of Freaks) is murdered in his home along with his wife and two young daughters. The crime is part of the Richmond spree murders, a series of deadly home invasions in Virginia perpetrated by Ricky Javon Gray and his nephew Ray Joseph Dandridge over the course of a week.

2005 Ne-Yo earns his first #1 hit as a songwriter when "Let Me Love You," performed by Mario, seizes the top spot for the first of nine weeks. Billboard ranks the song as the eighth most successful single of the decade.

2004 Charles Aznavour is named a Commander in the French Legion of Honor.

2003 Aretha Franklin sings the National Anthem when Michigan's first female governor, Jennifer Granholm, is sworn into office.

2002 56-year-old Eric Clapton marries the 25-year-old American graphic designer Melia McEnery, who will be the mother to three of his children: Julie Rose, Ella, and Sophie. It's a surprise wedding that takes place at St. Mary Magdalen church near London, where his 16-year-old daughter Ruth and 6-month-old Julie Rose are getting baptized. After the baptism, the vicar turns around and marries the couple to the astonishment of the 20 guests.

2000 George Harrison is informed that he will be able to play guitar again following knife injuries to his hand during Michael Abram's recent home invasion.

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Top Of The Pops Debuts With The Beatles at #1

1964

BBC-TV premieres a new musical variety show entitled Top Of The Pops, kicked off by The Rolling Stones' "I Wanna Be Your Man," followed by lip-synced performances from Dusty Springfield, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies and The Swinging Blue Jeans.


Broadcasting from Dickenson Road Studios, a converted church in Manchester, DJ Jimmy Savile presents the first episode of the pop countdown. Following the Stones' with their #13 hit, fresh-from-the-chart performances include Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want To Be With You," the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over," The Hollies with "Stay," and the Swinging Blue Jeans with "Hippy Hippy Shake Shake." Although The Beatles don't appear on the episode, their hit "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is the week's #1. In between sets, the studio audience grooves to the Fab Four's "She Loves You" and Gene Pitney's "24 Hours From Tulsa." BBC producer Johnnie Stewart created Top of the Pops due to the popularity of Savile's hit parade on Radio Luxembourg, Teen and Twenty Disc Club. Stewart, who called TOTP "the simplest show in the world," devised a set of rules that would keep the program fresh: featured artists had to have a single that was climbing the Top 20 that week and no record could be repeated the following week unless it hit #1. He also insisted on mimed performances, arguing a high quality studio recording was the best representation of a hit single. Lots of artists challenged the lip-synch rule throughout the show's more than 40-year-run, with The Stranglers, Morrissey, Nirvana, and Oasis overselling their miming to mock the format. But the Top of the Pops stage, which relocated to London two years after the show's debut, was still the place to be for the hottest acts in rock and pop until the show's cancellation in 2006.

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